Tearful Obama leads US mourning for 28 school massacre deaths

December 15, 2012

Obama

Washington, December 15: US President Barack Obama wiped tears from his face, choked on his words and spoke of his grief as authorities scrambled to find answers to what prompted a heavily armed young man to storm a Connecticut elementary school and gun down 28 people, including 20 children, in cold blood.

Over 100 people have died in campus shootings across the US in the last two decades largely because of lax gun laws. The gun lobby is a powerful one in the US and no party is ready to take them on and repeal laws in which gun ownership is seen as a kind of fundamental right.


The children who were killed in Friday's mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, over 100 km north of New York City, were said to be from 5 to 10 years old. Among the seven adults killed were Dawn Hochsprung, the school's principal, and school psychologist Mary Sherlach.

The shooter, identified by three law enforcement officials as 20-year-old Adam Lanza, also was killed, apparently by his own hand, CNN reported.


A 28th person was found dead in a house in the town and was also believed to have been shot by Lanza. That victim, one law enforcement official cited by the New York Times, was Lanza's mother, Nancy Lanza, a teacher at the school.

On Friday as a stunned America saw the unfolding tragedy in Connecticut, a student was arrested in the US state of Oklahoma for threatening to shoot inside a school.

Police arrested Sammy Chavez, 18, in west Bartlesville, Oklahoma, on an arrest warrant for threats to kill, reported Xinhua citing TV channel FOX23.

Police said officials from Bartlesville High School reported that a student talked about "planning a shooting at the school" Thursday morning.

According to court documents, the suspect tried to recruit other students to assist him in a plot to lure other students into the school auditorium, shut the doors and shoot them. Student witnesses also reported that the teenager claimed he would place bombs by the school doors.

With the toll at 28, the Newtown shooting is the second-deadliest school shooting in US history, behind only the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech that left 32 people, including two Indians dead, and 17 others injured.

Authorities in Hoboken, New Jersey, questioned Ryan Lanza, the suspect's older brother, CNN said citing law enforcement sources. Lanza's father, who lives in Connecticut, was similarly questioned.

"I know there's not a parent in America who doesn't feel the same grief that I do," Obama, the father of two daughters aged 11 and 14, said as he stood at the podium in the White House press room, visibly struggling to keep his emotion in check.


"The overwhelming majority of those who died today were children, beautiful little children between five and 10 years old. They had their entire lives ahead of them. Birthdays. Graduations. Weddings. Kids of their own," he said.


Obama paused repeatedly as he spoke and the muscles near his right eye twitched as he worked to maintain his composure.

"Our hearts are broken today for the parents and grandparents, sisters and brothers, of these little children and for the families of the adults who were lost," Obama said.

The bodies of the young victims remained where they fell Friday night, as authorities worked to positively identify them.
Flags were ordered to fly at half-staff nationwide in tribute to the victims, and candlelight vigils were planned across the country as Americans came together to try to comprehend the tragedy.

"Evil visited this community today," Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy said of Friday's massacre.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon too voiced his "deepest condolences" over the victims of the school shooting.

In a letter to Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy, Ban called the Sandy Hook Elementary School rampage "shocking murders", spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters.

"The secretary-general said that the targeting of children is heinous and unthinkable, and extended his thoughts and prayers to the families of the victims and all others traumatized by this horrendous crime," Xinhua quoted the spokesman as saying.

Leaders of the European Union (EU) too expressed their deep shock on the shooting incident.

"It is with deep shock and horror that I learned this evening of the tragic fatalities in the shooting in Connecticut. Young lives full of hope have been destroyed," said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in a statement.


Related: US school shooting: 20 children among 28 dead


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Agencies
June 24,2020

Washington, Jun 24: Twitter has once again flagged a tweet from US President Donald Trump which promoted violence by saying if protesters tried to set up an "autonomous zone" in Washington, DC they would be met with "serious force".

This is the fourth time Twitter has red flagged Trump's tweet for glorifying violence or violating its policies.

Trump has been critical of the "autonomous zone" in Seattle, an area occupied by protestors for much of this month.

"We've placed a public interest notice on this Tweet for violating our policy against abusive behaviour, specifically, the presence of a threat of harm against an identifiable group," Twitter's safety team tweeted late Tuesday.

Trump had tweeted: "There will never be an ‘Autonomous Zone' in Washington, D.C., as long as I'm your President. If they try they will be met with serious force!"

Twitter earlier labeled a video tweeted by him which mocked CNN as manipulated media.

According to Twitter, "this Tweet has been labeled per our synthetic and manipulated media policy to give people more context".

In May, Twitter labeled two Trump tweets that made false claims about mail-in ballots in California.

Twitter later labeled another Trump tweet glorifying violence in which he said, "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."

Facebook also removed a Trump campaign ad featuring a symbol used by Nazis for political dissenters, saying the ad violated its policies.

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News Network
February 24,2020

Kuala Lumpur, Feb 24: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has submitted his resignation to the king, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Monday, amid talks of forming a new coalition to govern the country.

Mahathir, 94, assumed office in May 2018 for his second stint as prime minister.

A spokesman from the prime minister's office declined to comment, saying only that a statement will be issued soon.

The sources declined to be named as they were not authorised to talk to the media.

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News Network
July 14,2020

Washington, Jul 14: The United States has the biggest Covid-19 testing programme in the world, better than big countries like Russia, China, India and Brazil, President Donald Trump said on Monday, asserting that America has "just about the lowest mortality rate" due to the disease in the world.

"We have one of the lowest mortality rates anywhere," Trump said at a White House roundtable. More than 34 lakh Americans have tested positive for Covid-19 so far and over 1,37,000 have died due to the disease, both of which are the largest numbers among all the countries.

The huge number of positive cases, the president said, is due to the massive testing efforts undertaken by his administration, more extensive than any other country.

"We test more than anybody by far. And when you test, you create cases. So we have created cases. I can tell you that some countries, they test when somebody walks into a hospital sick or walks into maybe a doctor's office, but usually a hospital. That is the testing they do, so they do not have cases, whereas we have all these cases. So, it is a double-edged sword," he said.

At the same time, the United States has the lowest mortality rate or just about the lowest mortality rate due to the disease in the world, Trump added. "We are doing a great job. We are doing very well with vaccines and we are doing very, very well with therapeutics. I think we are going to have some very good information coming out soon," he said in response to a question.

"But we have the best and certainly, by far, the biggest testing programme anywhere in the world. If you tested China or Russia or any of the larger countries, if you just tested India, as an example, the way we test, you would see numbers that would be very surprising. Brazil too. You know, Brazil is going through a big problem, but they do not do testing like we do," Trump said.

"So we do the testing and by doing the testing, we have tremendous numbers of cases. As an example, we have done 45 million tests. If we did half that number, you would have half the cases probably -- around that number. If we did another half of that, you would have half the numbers. Everyone would be saying, 'Oh, we are doing so well on cases'," he added.

Responding to a question, Trump said what China did to the world should not be forgotten.

"I think what China has done to the world with what took place -- the China plague -- you can call it the China virus, you can call it whatever you want to call it. It has about 20 different names. What they did to the world should not be forgotten," he said.

The trade deal with China that was signed early this year remains intact, the president said. "It is intact, they (China) are buying. Whether they buy or not, that is up to them. They are buying," he said.

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